Geo-Frontiers 2005... A Journey Experienced By 1800+

The Geo-Frontiers Congress, a joint venture with the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA) and the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), was held in Austin, TX, January 23-26, 2005. The show was a great success with more than 1850 attendees and 126 exhibitors.

A Variety of Technical Sessions Many of the 58 Monday through Wednesday technical sessions were delivered to standing-room only audiences as attendees participated in the numerous sessions that had been organized around nine major areas of practice: Advances in Pavement Engineering; Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics; Erosion Control; Foundations; Geotechnical Professional Issues; Site Characterization and Modeling; Slopes, Soil Reinforcement, and Retaining Structures; Soil Improvement and Grouting; and Waste Containment and Remediation.

Among some of the numerous sessions presented were Long-Term Performance of Geosynthetic Clay Liners; Advances in Deep Foundations, in Memory of M.W. O'Neill, Scour of Foundations; Geophysics - Where Do We Go From Here?; Remote Sensing in Geotechnical Engineering; Case Histories in Grouting and Deep Mixing; Recent Findings in Soil Liquefaction; Bioreactor Landfill Technology Update; International Perspectives on Soil Reinforcement Applications; Geotechnical Research Issues Panel Discussion; Stability of Slopes under Rainfall Infiltration and Reservoir Level Changes; Geosynthetics in Harsh Environments; and Advances in Soil Reinforcement Applications.

Two Prestigious Lectures The Terzaghi Lecture, one of the highest honors in geotechnical engineering, given by and honoring a distinguished engineer, was presented by Delwyn G. Fredlund, Ph.D., P.E., on Sunday evening. Dr. Fredlund's "Unsaturated Soil Mechanics in Engineering" presentation highlighted the importance of considering unsaturated soils when solving geotechnical engineering problems.

The second of the conference's honory lectures, the Peck Lecture, delivered annually by a geotechnical engineer selected for outstanding contributions to the profession through the analysis and publication of case histories was given by Thomas D. O'Rourke, Ph.D. on Tuesday evening. His "Lessons Learned for Ground Movements and Soil Stabilization on the Boston Central Artery" certainly underscored Dr. O'Rourke's sentiments that "There is importance and value in case histories... and transportation projects are a great source for case histories."

Plenaries... plus Humor NASA Astronaut, James F Reilly III, Monday's Opening Plenary speaker, quickly captured the attention of the 500+ person audience with some of his personal photos from his July 12, 2001 space journey. His captivating presentation, "Humans in the Cosmos: Our Journey of Discovery" took listeners through a historical journey of the speed of human transportation during the last four centuries. His current photos and descriptions of several of the medical, agricultural, geographical, and scientific experiments that are being conducted aboard the International Space Station shed new light on space exploration. How did Jim first become interested in space? "Earth sciences in grade school." Of course! Esther's Follies, Tuesday's hilarious prelude to Geo-Frontiers second plenary speaker, Dan McNichol, presented a political satire on some of America's political "biggies" George Bush, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Ross Perrot, and the ever-popular Donald Trump who exclaimed "ASCE is pretty important sounding, until I found out that you're the kind of people who like to play with rocks!"

Dan McNichol, the best-selling author and nationally-recognized expert on the Big Dig and the U.S. Interstate System, provided the audience a prespective of 200 years of transportation history, citing important milestones, such as in 1911 when the first truck journeyed 3 m.p.h. across the U.S., the building of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation's first super-highway, 1956's State Federal Act, and finally Boston's Big Dig - the most complex and expensive highway project ever undertaken in the United States. Mr. McNichol discussed how over 5,000 laborers per day are working to replace an outdated highway infrastructure with a new state-of-the-art highway system, most of which will be underground or underwater. Mr. McNichol's closing statement, "It's all about people on the road... We're a great country because of highways" clearly highlights the importance of a well-maintained national infrastructure.

Student Event Draws Crowd

Monday's Geo-Challenge Student Competition, took place on the field demonstration site and attracted more than 200 people. Five teams of students from across the country competed in the Geo-Challenge that involved construction of a scaled-down model of a mechanically-stabilized earth wall. Dry sand had to retained within a plywood form that had one removable panel. The stabilized wall behind the removable panel was made of poster-board, to which kraft-paper reinforcement strips were taped. The event was judged on capacity to support a design load, amount of reinforcement used, time to construct, and quality of a design report. The students were recognized, and the winners - University of Missouri - Columbia - (R. Baltodano, E. Freeman, D. Huaco, and A. Wallace) were announced by Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud at the Texas Barbecue Banquet. Kudos also went to runners-up Washington State University. The winners, in addition to "bragging rights," and a plaque, had the unique opportunity of playing Geo-Jeopardy with distinguished geo-heroes, J. P. Giroud, Bob Koerner, and Lymon Reese during the barbecue. The winning team will also be invited to send a representative to the 2005 Geosynthetics Research Institute meeting in Las Vegas, NV to present a paper on the event, at the expense of the North American Geosynthetics Society. John Allen, who along with Bob Gilbert, provided logistical support, summed up the event... "It's fantastic that we were able to bring everyone here to do this. It's a great introduction for undergrad students to see what geotech engineers do and to participate in the practice and science."

The Grouting Committee: Committee of the Year	James K. Mitchell: Seed Medal	Joseph P. Welsh: Wallace Hayward Baker Award
Dr. J. P. Giroud: Hero Award and the International Geosynthetic Society Award	Dr. Lymon C. Reese: Hero Award